Just wondering if the developers have ever considered putting Magic or something similar on iOS. VJ software comes up fairly regularly on the Audiobus forum and I notice we are all hankering for a real Magic-style equivalent for our ipads. Hopefully you'll get a few new customers as I was promoting Magic there today-- https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/1336 ... -to-takete
The thing about doing a lot of music production on an ipad is that you become reluctant to sit at your desk, so I'm always hoping my desktop software will become portable (although I could get a Surface but I lack the money part).
Magic as iPad Software
Re: Magic as iPad Software
Cool, thanks for mentioning Magic there. Your question is a good one.
To be honest, I think there are still several limitations for iOS and Android tablets. For one, the processors (CPU/GPU) tend to be much slower. Older iPads would really have trouble doing complex things in Magic (while maintaining 60 fps or even 30). I'm sure the iPad Pro would perform better, but for the price, you could just buy a Windows tablet which would perform the best.
Also, the screen size and lack of mouse/keyboard are important issues. Magic has a lot of parameters to tweak, and it would be hard to access them with your finger without making the UI much larger and thus reducing what you could fit on the screen. A stylus would definitely be better than a finger for selecting things, but it wouldn't improve the lack of screen area.
To me though, the most critical issue is the compatibility of iOS itself. The file system isn't accessed in a way that's compatible with Macs and PCs, so loading your media files (especially non-standard things like shaders, 3D models, large .jpg sequences) would become a lot more difficult. Also, the availability of hardware accessories (such as MIDI controllers or multichannel sound cards) is very limited for iOS when compared with OSX and Windows. Most input, including any media and any control signals, would probably have to be done over the network, increasing the latency and thus reducing the impact of Magic's reactive capabilities.
My goal in developing Magic was to create the most customizable and responsive program I could. As it stands right now, tablets seem to place too many limitations on those qualities. I don't want to compromise the experience just to support other platforms. And as far as I can tell, most creative users are still working on laptops/desktops anyway, so that's where the market is. But things could change over time, of course -- I'm always trying to pay attention to what's coming next and factor that into my development decisions.
So, in short, I don't currently have plans for an iPad version, but I'd also never rule it out as a future possibility
.
To be honest, I think there are still several limitations for iOS and Android tablets. For one, the processors (CPU/GPU) tend to be much slower. Older iPads would really have trouble doing complex things in Magic (while maintaining 60 fps or even 30). I'm sure the iPad Pro would perform better, but for the price, you could just buy a Windows tablet which would perform the best.
Also, the screen size and lack of mouse/keyboard are important issues. Magic has a lot of parameters to tweak, and it would be hard to access them with your finger without making the UI much larger and thus reducing what you could fit on the screen. A stylus would definitely be better than a finger for selecting things, but it wouldn't improve the lack of screen area.
To me though, the most critical issue is the compatibility of iOS itself. The file system isn't accessed in a way that's compatible with Macs and PCs, so loading your media files (especially non-standard things like shaders, 3D models, large .jpg sequences) would become a lot more difficult. Also, the availability of hardware accessories (such as MIDI controllers or multichannel sound cards) is very limited for iOS when compared with OSX and Windows. Most input, including any media and any control signals, would probably have to be done over the network, increasing the latency and thus reducing the impact of Magic's reactive capabilities.
My goal in developing Magic was to create the most customizable and responsive program I could. As it stands right now, tablets seem to place too many limitations on those qualities. I don't want to compromise the experience just to support other platforms. And as far as I can tell, most creative users are still working on laptops/desktops anyway, so that's where the market is. But things could change over time, of course -- I'm always trying to pay attention to what's coming next and factor that into my development decisions.
So, in short, I don't currently have plans for an iPad version, but I'd also never rule it out as a future possibility
.